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Est-ce que tu vas à la gare ?

Est-ce que tu vas à la gare ?
Are you going to the train station?
From Lesson 31:The verb to go (aller)·French

Questions & Answers about Est-ce que tu vas à la gare ?

I thought 'to go' was aller. Why does it change to vas here?
Aller (to go) is a highly irregular verb, meaning it does not follow the normal pattern for verbs ending in '-er'. For the informal 'you' (tu), the correct form is always vas. So, tu vas means 'you go' or 'you are going'.
What exactly does Est-ce que mean at the start of the sentence?
Est-ce que is a very common way to ask a yes/no question in French. It literally translates to 'Is it that', but you can think of it like the English word 'Do' or 'Are' at the start of a question. It turns the statement tu vas à la gare (you are going to the train station) into the question Est-ce que tu vas à la gare ? (Are you going to the train station?).
Why do we use à la before gare?
The word gare (train station) is a feminine noun. In French, to say 'to the', you use the preposition à (to) plus the definite article (la for feminine nouns). Since it is feminine, they stay separate as à la. If the destination were a masculine noun, like le parc (the park), they would combine into the single word au.
Do I pronounce the 's' at the end of vas?
No, the 's' at the end of vas is completely silent. You just pronounce it like 'vah'. In everyday spoken French, you also do not usually make a connecting sound (a liaison) between the silent 's' in vas and the à that comes immediately after it.

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